I've been feeling so blessed lately to have such great friends in my life. We call our Round Rock friends FAMILY and I truly believe that!

We take care of each other, help in times of need, laugh and cry together and also have TONS of fun. I love all these ladies and their kiddos and we have so much fun trying to make the most of life together. We are always celebrating birthdays with ice cream or dinners and every baby born gets some kind of shower! They uplift me and make me feel special, capable and answer all my crazy mom questions. We love the Bachelor but also believe in raising our kids to be good citizens with good hearts. We are obsessed with Target and Chick fil A and that's okay with me. We share dinner recipes and compliment each other even on our worst days. We discuss spiritual dilemmas and marital woes without judgment and we eat lots of Oreos. We go on walks, to the park, and encourage our kids to love the outdoors and we try to stay active with Zumba, running, yoga and walks. They have taught me how to be a better mother and friend and they have helped make being a stay at home mother a true joy!

And last but not least, helped me master the art of the selfie.  

Okay maybe I'm still working on it (as evidenced in the photo below!! 

(Where's the eye rolling emoji when you need one?)

Jen's Birthday Dinner! 

Amber's birthday dinner! 

Church selfie! (Don't worry church was over!) 

Park day! How beautiful are these ladies?

Jaymie's birthday lunch! 

Shopping selfie with Allisa! 

Nora couldn't be bothered! ha. 

A food blogger workshop with Landen. 

We literally talked for like 4 hours straight and still couldn't finish. Love this girl! 

Another big thing is watching each other's kids! My friends are always there for me when I have doctor's appointments or I'm sick or when I had to rush up to Dallas to be with my family. Nora loves all my friends and their kids and it makes me so happy that she is safe and happy with them! 

Isn't this the cutest selfie of them?

They are always up for trying new places in Austin and new parks and new bakeries! We have so much fun exploring this city and I'm glad we have these great ladies to do it with. 

And we don't take ourselves too seriously! (Here we are sitting on a giant hippo!) 

And they go take baking classes with me! Allisa and I took a "Petit Fours" baking class here. We loved it! And we are taking a macaron class in December. 

Love my Round Rock ladies. 

"Baby Swap"

Awhile ago, some friends of mine started rotating dropping off their kids once a week for a couple of hours. When Nora was about 6 months old they invited me to join and I was more than happy to say yes! The other kids are about 8 months older than her but she just recently reached a good age where the ages matter less (she was definitely more of the baby to them and need more individual attention before). The idea of the "swap" was to give us a couple hours to ourselves kid free to do whatever we wanted. It started off as a break for me but the older Nora has gotten the more I have loved it for a few reasons: 1. It's so great for her to get playtime without me around! 2. It's good for her to have me drop her off somewhere and see me leave and be OK with that 3. It's great time for me to work out or run errands (and it's guilt free since I know she's having fun with friends!)

So  I host 5 little ones at my house every 5 weeks! I seriously love hosting as much as I love having time to myself because the kids are buds and love each other.

We spend our time playing, reading books, having a snack and breaking up little fights over toys. It's always fun!

 When I'm ambitious I try to get chores done with the kiddos. Here they are "helping!"

 

 Snacktime always provides lots of entertainment. Everyone must have the same amounts and everyone needs their water cups and everyone eats at different speeds and it's all very entertaining. They often end up sitting here making faces and laughing at each other. And I end up laughing about how silly they all are!

 This day they were playing happily but Nora was wanting my undivided attention bringing me books (but not wanting the other kids to read them with us). So it's not always perfect but I think it's good for her. She will have siblings and that will be the same struggle!

 I always love when the other ladies send photos of Nora and the kids having fun at their houses. Here Nora is steering. I love to see her happy (especially without me!). 

 Attempting coloring. Nora thinks "coloring" is eating crayons for now. ha. 

 The kids always bring me toys and show me how they can work them.

They are so proud of themselves! 

 This is by far the favorite activity at my house: spinning in my glider. They giggle and giggle and Nora loves it too. We can fit a lot of kids! 

 

Here's Nora when she was little. She would often nap when the kids were over even but now I always keep her awake to enjoy playtime. 

It's been such a great experience for us, we hope it keeps going and going! 

Thanks Allison for starting it up! 

An Afternoon in Hutto

One afternoon my friends planned a trip to the nearby town of Hutto. It's a small town with not much to offer but their mascot is a hippo and they have hippos all over town! So we decided to go and take lots of pictures with the hippos and walk around downtown and then finish things off with some pie! It was seriously such a fun afternoon and it makes me so grateful for my great group of mom friends and their cute kids that are Nora's little friends. We laugh so much and I treasure these moments as a stay at home mother.

All the kids on the Hutto Hippo! 

Nora and her friend Quinn! Quinn is such a sweetheart and always plays with Nora. 

Just hanging with the Hippo!

Getting eaten by the hippo! Nora was less amused than me :)

S'mores pie! So good. 

Nora and her boyfriend Trey!

All the mommas on the hippo!

Hippo selfie! Love these ladies! 

Seriously such a fun memorable afternoon.